Trap-door-operated car-step.



J. P. DEIMLING.

TRAP DOOR. OPERATED GAB. STEP.

APPLIGATION FILED H313. '1. 1914.

1,1 14,679. Patented 0013.20, 1914.

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JOHN PHILLIPP DEIMLING, OF CLARION, PENNSYLVANIA.

TRAP-DOOR-OPERATED CAR-STEP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 20, 1914;.

Application led February 7,1914. Serial No. 817,270.

To all whom 'it may concern.'

Beit known that I, J oHN PHILLIPP DEIM- LING, a citizen of the United States, residing at Clarion, in the county of Clarion and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Trap- Door-Operated Car-Steps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to car steps, and pertains especially to means for operating extensible steps of the type of railroad cars known as Pullman cars.

The object of the invention is to provide special mechanism attachable to car platforms and steps in common use, for automatically operating an extensible step by the usual swinging movement of the ordinary trap door.

A further object of the invention is to provide special arrangement and connection of levers with an ordinary trap door and with an extensible step so that the opening and closing of the door will automatically extend and retract the step.

A still further object of the invention is to provide special mechanism for converting the vertical swinging movement of the trap doors of railway cars to horizontal movement of a supplemental extensible step.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a shaft for hinging trap doors of railway cars, and to provide means operated by said shaft for extending and retracting a supplemental car step simultaneously with the opening and closing of said door.

Various other objects, advantages, and improved results will be found in the practical application of the invention.

ln the accompanying drawings forming part of this application Flgure 1 1s a rear view of car steps showing the application of the invention, with the parts in position as placed by opening the trap door for extending the supplemental step. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the plane indicated by the dotted line a-a Fig. 1. Fig. 3 Lis a similar view `showing the trap doorA closed and the step retracted. Fig. 4 is a front edge view of part of the platform, and part of the doors in open position, partly broken away. Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view of the slotted lever. Fig. 6 is a detail view of the hinge shaft partly broken away. Fig. 7 is a detail elevation of one pair of the brackets and the lower end of the trap door.

The same reference characters denote the same parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

The present invention is an improvement on my invention covered in my application Serial No. 773,065, allowed August 2, 1915, and is designed for operating extensible steps by merely opening and closing the trap door of a railway coach, whereas the said allowed application covers subject matter for operating such step by swinging the vestibule car door, and for operating the step independent of the movement of the car door. In the present application I employ the same extensible step construction and riser connection, and also the same step levers as disclosed and claimed in said allowed application. Therefore the same will not herein be claimed, but are shown and described in connection with the present invention for the proper carrying out thereof.

.The car platform 1, vestibule door 2 hinged at 3, steps l, and a trap door 5, are of the usual type employed on Pullman cars, except that the hinge of the trap door is offset from the hinged end thereof for the purpose of having such hinge operate the mechanism for extending and retracting the extensible step.

The hinge for the trap door 5, comprises a shaft 6 extending across the under side of the door 5, a pair of plates 7 integral with and extending laterally from the shaft throughout the width of the door, and means, such as screws 8, for securing the plates to the door so as to o-set the shaft 6' from the hinged end of the door, for the purpose of journaling the said shaft, as will now be explained. The outer end of the shaft 6 is journaled in a bracket 9 secured to the vestibule casing 10, and the door 5 is notched at 5, to permit the door to swing over the bracket 9, and said notch forms a seat 5b, for engaging the bracket when the door is raised to open position, and thereby assists in holding the door in vertical position. The shaft 6 kextendsthrough the stepriserll, whichis provided with a journal bracket 12 located under the front edge of the platform 1, for said shaft. The shaft 6 extends under and parallel with the platform 1, and across the axial line of a shaft hereinafter particularly referred to as the platform shaft 13, and said shaft 6 embodies a crank 14' having a conical end or trunnion 14; projecting therefrom parallel with the axial line of the shaft 6.

The shaft 13 is mounted in journals 15 on the under side of the platform 1, perpendicular to the shaft 6, and the shaft 13 is turned simultaneously with the shaft 6, byvr means of a bowed yoke-shaped levei` 16, having a collar 17 secured upon and turnable with the shaft 6. The lever 16 has a slot 18, between an upper arm 19 which is turned upwardly and inwardly, and a straight lower arm`20. The shaft 6 is oscillated by and in unison with the movements of the trap door 5, so as to oscillate the crank end or trunnion 14a in the slot 1S and thereby oscillate the lever 16 and the shaft 18 in unison with the swinging movements of the door 5. It will be observed that in the upward movement of the crank the trunnion 11a has lits principal bearing on the arm 19 for raising the lever 16, and that in the downward movement of the crank the trunnion has its principal bearing on the arm 2O for forcing the lever 16 downwardly.

A lever 21 is secured to the shaft 13 and depends therefrom, and is fulcrumed with a lever 22 by means of a stop joint 23. The lever 22 is pivoted at 24 to the supplemental or extensible step 25, which is hinged at 24a to a riser 25a hinged at 26a. A hanger 26 is secured to the back of the lower or ordinary step-riser 27, and projects rearwardly and downwardly therefrom, for the purposes hereinafter fully explained. A bell-crank lever 28 is connected with the lever 21 by a lever 21a, and is fulcrumed at 29 to the end of the'hanger 26, and has a free end 30 riding on the step 25 so as to follow the swinging movement of the step and engage the under side of the step during the raising movement thereof, and thereby assist in such movement and also' to form additional means for holding said step in retracted position.

It will be seen that the shaft 6 is fixed to and operated only by the trap door 5, and that the opening and closing of said door must extend and retract the supplemental step, so that the movement of said step is governed entirely by the movement of said door, and the positions of the step are fixed according to the positions of the door. It will also be observed that the crank holds the lever 16 in raised and lowered positions and fixes the door in open and closed positions.

Obviously the crank shaft may be attached to the trap door by other suitable means, and the relative positions of said shaft and the shaft which is connected with the crank shaft may be varied as desired or as occasion may demand.

It will be further observed that the arrangement of the mechanism is such as to closely follow the incline or pitch of the steps, so that said mechanism may not interfere 'with any of the usual devices and mechanism carried under or by the car platforms, and that the invention is applicable to any of the usual type of railway steps.

do not wish to be understood as confining or limiting my invention to any particular size, material, or mechanical details in lthe construction and application thereof, but reserve to myself the right to make such changes and variations therein as ma7 come within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described my invention what l claim' as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The combination with a hinged, trap door, a hinged'step, and a platform shaft, of a shaft having fixed relation with the door and extending under the platform, a slotted lever secured to the platform shaft, a crank operated in the lever slot by the door shaft, and step-operating mechanism connected with the platform shaft.

2. in mechanism operated by the trap door of railway cars for operating extensible steps, a shaft fixed to the trap door and extending under the car platform, a crank projecting from the platform end of said shaft, a shaft journaled under the platform perpendicular to the door shaft, a lever securedV to and projecting from the platform shaft for connecting this shaft with the door shaft, and step operating mechanism connected with the platform shaft.

1n witness whereof l hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN PHILLIPP DEIMLING.

l/Vitnesses GEO. F. VHITENER, S. K. CLARKE.k

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington; D. C. 

